The goal of this project is to identify and correct Moodle’s problems of usability, and help avoiding them in next releases. Additionally, it is also desirable to find out what components from the Fluid Project can be used in Moodle, in order to provide a continuous feedback of usability problems and try to prevent them in the future.

My plan to is create a button that will pull the source of a current page a submit it to w3 for validation. I was also thinking, so the user doesn't have to leave the site, to have the errors pulled back to the user and displayed with a page that will have the number of errors and warnings. If the page is valid it will alert the user and not display the number of errors or warnings. This will be provided in a sleek GUI for maximum accessibility. Follow the url in "Link to Further Information" for some mock-ups.

My project will provide a method of measuring the user experience which has been stated as a very important goal of Drupal. In Dries' keynote he detailed the results of the usability testing and stressed that we should "Continue to make Drupal easier to use." My project will provide a suite of usability testing tools that will allow data to be recorded and analyzed in order to make improvements to Drupal's usability.

People are always in touch with each other now; it doesn't matter where they are anymore. The separation between personal life and work is disappearing.XWiki Watch is XWiki's collaborative RSS reader. XWatch needs to find, analyze and distribute relevant information, whether are information about work or fun. This can be accomplished with a good organization of the information and of the space used. The data displayed should have functions easily visible and obvious to use.XWatch needs to create a unique user experience, amplifying his killer features (Collaborative application, Text Analysis, Press Review, etc). To ensure the user experience, XWatch has to be useful, usable, desirable, findable, accessible, credible and valuable. This can be made concentrating on the details and overall presentation.Because the user should be in the center of the development process, XWatch needs to improve his interaction and user interface. To achieve this, it has to integrate more Human Computer Interaction principles, Interaction Design Patterns and it has to use more components from frameworks like Google Web Toolkit, or libraries like Yahoo! UI Library.

The purpose of the project is to tackle some usability issues of diagrams in ArgoUML. This will include several new functions (Create new class wizard, Class integration between diagrams…), that should facilitate the creation of diagrams and make the user experience more pleasant and engaging.

I will create a GTK+ GUI for Aptitude that will work alongside improved current ncurses and command-line interfaces. This will offer an alternative to Synaptic with an interface design geared toward usability and advanced functionality.

Improve usability to non-native speakers and blind users via the following tasks1) Implement a framework to allow the localization of text within plugins.2) Adjust the "Browse Plugins" menu to display the localized name of each plugin. e.g. solitaire.rock would display Solitaire.Secondary Tasks (Time permitting):3) Voice for the database4) Voice for plugins

8)Transifex :: Usability and Efficiency Enhancements . FedoraStudent Diego Búrigo ZacarãoMentor Asgeir FrimannssonFor a better user experience and a better tool for translators, our application to submit translations (Transifex) should receive some enhancements. These enhancements are related to usability, efficiency, and accessibility for non-English native people.Our goal is to improve Transifex to an easy administration with all application internationalized and finally allows users to have a great efficiency on all interactions over the application. Make Transifex User Friendly and Efficient, in order to bring more contributors and save valuable time for existing translators.

I plan to work on the OpenBiomind Java GUI idea suggested in OpenCog list of ideas (http://opencog.org/wiki/Ideas#Java_GUI). As specified in the description, “Many biologists using microarrayers and other tools are command-line-phobic. A simple Java GUI (like Weka) could significantly improve OpenBiomind's usability lower the barrier to entry. At a minimum, the Java GUI should allow users to select parameters, launch processes and manage pipelines.”

My first idea is relatively straightforward--As a user of sakai I find it frustrating how little student-submitted content is available. Often-times when an assignment is unclear people go to the forums or wiki to get help when they're stuck. My idea would be to incorporate an AJAX-(or other similar language) driven chat buddy list into each class page--showing you a list of who else in that class is online so that students can discuss problems together.My other idea is to have a personal storage section on sakai, hopefully by using AJAX controls to draw a virtual desktop where the user can create folders and drag-and-drop files by incorporating OLE functions to help students manage their school-related files.

Through this project, I hope to integrate AJAX functionalities (using jQurey UI) into the core of Coppermine gallery. This project aims to enhance the user experience Coppermine gallery and simplify the user interactions with system's functionalities.

Goals for the project are:1. Improve Internet2's NPToolkit to make it easier for administrators to install, configure and manage machines running the software provided by the toolkit. Currently, it is difficult for administrators to make even small customizations to running services, since the entire toolkit runs off a live CD -- with basic configuration files residing on a USB key or internal hard drive. Ideally, administrators should be able to tailor the toolkit's performance by adding/modifying small scripts which could be configured to start at run time.2. Integrate perfSONAR measurement and visualization into the next version of the NPToolkit. These tools will help administrators exchange and monitor performance data across large interconnected networks.3. Develop a simplified configuration tool so that administrators can configure the software on the toolkit through a single, convenient script.4. Add security related options to the basic configuration scripts so that administrators can easily turn security related services (e.g. iptables) on/off depending on their individual needs and security philosophies.

Axel Guckelsberger works on several project at once: next to pnUpper his main attention is focused on his diploma thesis which includes the development of the module studio and on an easy access for first time PostNuke users. Result of this efforts are EasyDist and EasyInstaller. EasyDist is a distribution system that enables the future webmaster to point & click a custom PostNuke package - complete with core, modules, theme and languages. Just as you need it. EasyDist will then give you a download archive with all parts in the right folders. EasyInstaller is a window program that helps the newbie to install the previously acquired package. You simply have to type in FTP and Database credentials and if will upload and install PostNuke automatically. EasyInstall is written in C# and Axel is looking for someone to take over the job of finalizing the work on EasyInstaller. The major project is the ModuleStudio. I can't really summarize the whereabouts of this system. But Axel assured me that it helps module developers to point & click a new module within few hours and it won't be possible anymore to write incompliant functions anymore. Every module generated with his system must be as secure as the rest of PostNuke and can only contain errors that are errors of the generator and if you correct that error in the ModuleStudio you can update every module in the same step. The programmer himself can't introduce coding errors. During the presentation Axel showed a live demo of the visual editor which turned out to be pretty impressing. The ModuleStudio will be released open source but maybe there will be restrictions and different licenses for commerical or non open source projects. Further information about these projects can be found at modulestudio.de. Slides here: http://support.pn-cms.de/module-Downloads-view-cid-8-start-0.htm

pnMeeting 2007: Mark West's Keynote

Starting 1 hour late due to technical issues and without sound Mark West gave a brief overview over the past PostNuke year. We released .764 and .8 RC1 - RC2 is supposed to follow within the next few weeks. We did a redesign of the NOC and appointed a new Steering Committee. PostNuke is now in the process of a rebranding. A new name has been chosen by the PostNuke Foundation and as soon as all legal issues are solved the new name will be presented to the community. Mark's next topic were the central features in PostNuke .8 which are also the main topic of this years meeting. The German PostNuke Foundation tried to assemble a panel that explains all the new features to the broad community. Believe it or not - .9 is already in the planning. There's already a branch in the SVN and we decided to make it PHP5 only. The Object Library will become core. The language system will get an overhaul - other systems will be evaluated. .9 will deliver UTF-8 and it should be possible to really have multilingual content. Mark West pointed out the power of the PostNuke permission system - but also the problems with its complexity. Frank Schummertz volunteered to work out the next generation permission system. If you want to help, Mark asks you to work on the Wiki, do some testing, report bugs, submit patches or develop your own PostNuke extensions. In the following discussion, Frank Schummertz reported the experience some users made with the UTF-8 conversion of PostNuke.

pnMeeting 2007: Jørn Wildt Proposes New Content Module

One of the things that always comes up when comparing PostNuke to other Content Management Systems is its lack of real content management. All we have is some old News, Pages and FAQ (and some more) management modules - nothing really fancy. You can add fancy modules like PagEd, Pagesetter, pnWiki and others but somehow they all lack, well, something - something which I find rather difficult to pinpoint. They are either too complex, too simple, impossible to extend and do not integrate well with each other. I have been doing some thinking about this issue and would like to present some ideas for a new Content system in PostNuke. A framework that newbies can work with right out of the box, an extensible framework, and a framework with well integrated components that are aware of each other. My ideas are by no means rocket science and most, if not all, have been implemented else where - just not in PostNuke. If you ask me then PostNuke is going to dwindle away unless something serious is done to add a good content framework. Here is my suggestion.

pnMeeting 2007: Jørn Wildt explains pnForms

CoType is Jørn's first module that makes full use of pnForms. pnForms is a form frame that is part of PostNuke .8 core and it makes working with user input easier and if used properly the look & feel of PostNuke modules more consistent. As an introduction Jørn gave a tour through CoType and showed what the work with pnFoms looks like: Automatic input validation, standardized feedback in case of invalid input and standardized form look & feel. In the second part of his presentation Jørn looked into the code behind CoType - most of the examples came from the Wiki and made clear that pnForm will save a lot of work and take away the responsibility for usable forms a bit away from the programmer

Albert Perez Monfort is the representative of the Catalonian Department of Education. He and his colleague last year presented their "Intraweb" project for the first time. His year he gave us an update on the state of the certainly biggest PostNuke project in the world. 3000 public schools, around 80000 teachers and 1 million students use PostNuke for their school websites. The Department of Education offers a PostNuke sites to every school in Catalonia and some 500 of them use it. Besides PostNuke Moodle and MyScrapBook are in use for the project. MyScrapBook is an easy content solution that the schools use to produce book-style web sites. As a first step the projects main site has been migrated from Joomla to PostNuke - a point that was criticized last year icon_wink But more importantly during the last year 450 teacher were trained in the use of PostNuke. Theses courses are repeated this year with another 400 teachers. Albert Monfort and his collegues for their project integrated PostNuke with the eLearning system Moodle very comfortably. Moreover they imporved some of the old core modules so that they can handle massive numbers of users. For their special requirements Albert Monfort and his collegues programmed several modules. For example "Agendas" handles Agendas for single users or groups of users. Teachers can even handle presence lists with PostNuke. All modules are available via their homepage only most of they are currently Catalan only. They even build up an internal FAQ system for common problems with PostNuke. It's in Catalan - so if you are able to speak Catalan feel free to translate it for the Wiki. icon_wink For the future the Catalanian Deparment of Educations plans to at once move to .8 and run it only with one installation. That will reduce the maintainance work and the risk of problems with hundereds of installations. The project "Intraweb" can be found at http://phobos.xtec.cat/intraweb/web

pnMeeting 2007: Robert Gasch on DBUtil and the Object Model in .8

After a short evaluation of the participants knowledge about DBUtil Robert Gasch provided a short introduction for the new .8 DB Library. Only few have heard about DBUtil, even fewer have used it themselves. Robert Gasch aimed at changing this. DBUtil frees the programmer from the need of writing SQL. You rather work with objects and all your selects will be checked for permissions. So if you fetch a set of 10 articles you will only receive that 10 articles that the users is allowed to see. This alone is a major enhancement and saves lots of code lines. Robert presented the object library as a powerful yet quite easy to use system for the handling of objects. After the initialization of an object you can select, edit, delete aso the object.

pnMeeting 2007: Robert Gasch on CategoryUtil

The initial idea for categoryUtil was giving PostNuke a central category system. Not every module should have to organize its own categories. Module developer can now simply use the API to store, edit or delete categories. Robert evaluated other category systems and tried to imitate the best he found and to avoid the mistakes they contained. He explained the various fields that you find in the category administration an how you can use them in your own module. The system was considered quite complex by the audience but Mark West and Robert assured that this will be taken care of. The use of basic categories will be as easy as possible. But first of all the system works and can be used by the module developers. It is also their duty to create intelligent user interfaces for the categories in their modules. There are basic plugins available that display category lists aso. Further plugin can be developed on demand of the community. So if you feel there's something missing - make it a feature request in the NOC. During the discussion various ideas for simplification came up and will certainly be implemented among of which were the security domain, the custom data fields and the needed -1 value for main categories. Robert also explained that it is also possible to put for example one article into several categories.

pnMeeting 2007: Mark West talks about .8/.9

In his final presentation for this year Mark West presented some of the user side highlights of .8 Mark Ronchera asked for the use of OpenID in future releases which Mark West answered by explaining the flexibility of the .8 authentication module. You can easily inculde plugins for other authentication systems. Simon Birtwistle pointed out that he already produced a plugin for his university's auth system. If you want you could also authenticate against phpBB or any other PHP script but you are not limited to it and LDAP e.g. is already included

I disagree. Capitalism's goal is to maximize profit, nothing else. Also in capitalism exploitation must exist, otherwise no one makes any money. It is a corner stone to sell more expensive than you bought, otherwise no enriching. Cheaper price means cheaper labour and in the end you have exploitation because it is cheaper. And people get exploited because they have no choice, they have to have food etc. Capitalism means freedom of choice for a selected narrow crowd.

I disagree. Capitalism's goal is to maximize profit, nothing else. Also in capitalism exploitation must exist, otherwise no one makes any money. It is a corner stone to sell more expensive than you bought, otherwise no enriching. Cheaper price means cheaper labour and in the end you have exploitation because it is cheaper. And people get exploited because they have no choice, they have to have food etc. Capitalism means freedom of choice for a selected narrow crowd.

Maximizing production is more like creative optimization within hard bounds. Since the limits for potential individual consumption seems to be very high/endless, and the number of individuals is what it is, and there are real limits to production, simply "producing more" isn't going to solve all the problems. At least not for everybody.The current issue of raised food prices globally because of bio-fuel production is a good example in this context. Of course one side-effect might be that some farmland will be used more constructively and so on; showing some of the strengths of capitalism, but it is still a reminder that there are limits to production.